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Fresh water tank fill

I have a new Landmark Cape Cod and only on my second shakedown camping run. I find it almost impossible to get water into the fresh water tank (tanks?). In my last visit to the dealer to fix a few bugs from the first shakedown, I mentioned this and they told me I probably had some water trapped in the vent line. Their solution to this was to wrap a rag around the hose and stuff it in the water fill port to build some pressure and blow the vent line clear (didn't actually do it, just recommended it). I'm an engineer and know it doesn't take much pressure to blow a plastic tank this size (two or three psi maybe?), but it should only take a few inches of water pressure to clear the vent so I gave it a very gentle try with no luck, just air gurgling back through the water fill hose. If I let the water barely trickle into the fill, it will slowly enter the tank and I can hear air gurgling back by the same route. There is no air passing out through the vent hose screen so pretty well points to a pinched vent line somewhere and the gurgling in the fill line suggests that it has a sag that is trapping water. Where is all this happening and what is the fix? Can I access it myself? I pulled the panel off in the basement and can see the fill hose heading back toward the fresh water tank, but couldn't follow it or the vent line. I don't mind pursuing it if I don't have to drop the underbelly (had enough of that on the old Jayco). Otherwise its 100 miles to my dealer or 450 to Elkhart.

We have had quite a few owners with the same issue. Mine was a pinched vent line. Fortunately for me, it was fixed after the rally by Rec Specialties. If your vent line is pinched or blocked in any way the underbelly will have to be removed to find the problem. You may be able to take down only a few feet on the off door side near the tank and find the problem. Good luck. You might try some light air pressure to the vent line hole. This could blow any obstruction back to the tank.

Thanks Ray and Slaytop. I know the vent line has to access the top of the tank, but does its tank fitting come off the top of the tank or does it come off the bottom with a standpipe reaching up through the water to the top of the tank? Other tanks I'm familiar with have the vent molded into the top. Wherever it comes off, the hose must take a rather circuitous route up to the UDC and is apparently pliable enough to fold and close somewhere (can't imagine a new fresh water system being plugged with a foreign object). It would seem that the only long-term solution would be to replace it with stiffer tubing--perhaps fabric-filled pressure line. But you say there is no way to access the point of attachment to the water tank (is it one tank or two?) except by dropping the underbelly. I don't mind doing top-side repairs and mods (kind of enjoy it), but after putting in electronic tank monitors in my last Jayco, I've had all that kind of fun I can stand. If I could reach the vent fitting from topside, I would be glad to do the fix, but if the factory has no easy fixes for this, I guess I will turn it over to their service folks. Sure do appreciate your responses. Perhaps I'll see you at the Heartland Rally.

Water Tank Vent Line Image

fivernine,

The image below was taken during a factory tour. I cannot tell you what unit it was for. You also need to know that the trailer was not in a finished state. Therefor what you see here is does not mean that's how it ended up in a finished unit.

That all said, it may give you some insight as to how yours may be plumbed and what it may take to get to it.

The 2009 Landmarks do have two 45 gallon fresh water tanks so there one solid answer for you

From your location and a comment in another post, I am guessing you purchased from RVsForLess. I'd suggest giving them another shot at this - especially if the tanks need to be dropped I'm with you, top-side's one thing, under the belly of the beast is another.

Now then, if I was retired, had my unit on concrete and in a warm climate - I'd tackle more under the belly - but I am not dropping a tank.

Uncle Rog: Took your advice and searched "water tank issues." My gracious! so many problems with such simple hydraulics and for so long. I just finished delivering a bellows accumulator tank to NASA MSFC for the Intl Space Station. I find this silliness over a simple water delivery and vent issue quite a contradiction for a company that has done such a fantastic job on this Landmark in every other respect. It's amazing how many people have undertaken the repair themselves like Loco in his 11-20-07 post. Lordy, I hope that's not what I'm facing and that Heartland will fix this once and for all.
Jim, thanks, that is a great shot of the tank placement and makes the vent routing pretty clear in the neighborhood of the tanks. It also appears that they are already using reinforced tubing--a good choice for its fairly rigid wall. So far, my problem just appears to be a pinched vent line. Water would have blown out with the few inches of head pressure I exerted on the fill hose. But the vent screen remained dry and had no outflow of water or air. I will call Butch at RVs for Less and set another day aside to get this fixed. My wife and I plan to drycamp at the Good Sam Rally a little over four weeks from now and will expect a full supply of water with no surprises. I perhaps didn't mention that my unit is a new 2008. Does it also have dual fresh water tanks?

Yes, I "believe" that all of the new (Cape Cod, Augusta and Pinehurst) Landmarks have the two fresh water tanks. To be certain, consider a post in the Landmark ATF (Ask the Factory) forum and Coley Brady, the product manager will confirm this.

Yes, the company is Flexial Corporation. We build fluid control components for many of the major aerospace and military progams. Camping is our escape, especially with our son and his family; he got us started five years ago when they got a pop-up and we discovered Stone Mountain in Georgia. We just went whole-hog and bought a 3-year old 37' Jayco Designer fiver. Fell in love with the freedom and having home wherever we went. I have gotten sick of flying and dodge it where I can, so if there is a customer within driving range, we haul. I have a Wilson cell phone antenna high on the desk slideout and amplifier inside that lets me communicate with the office through Verizon from just about anywhere. We've made some long loops in the past few years--Hatteras, Maine, Wyoming, Colorado. We'll put aside three weeks and ramble by inspiration. We enjoy caravaning with our son (VP Eng, Disney) and with his five and our daughter's five, we can always find grandkids to join us. The kids have dubbed us "The Mother Ship."

When the Jayco showed too many signs of age, we had decided to get a Mobile Suites by Doubletree and found the floor plan we liked (similar to the Cape Cod). Then stumbled into the Cape Cod and found it had one significant advantage--the bedroom slide didn't block the bathroom door when retracted. Didn't know Heartland from Heartburn, but found a lot of good reports on forums and its finish quality certainly resembled Mobile Suites.

Except for my issue regarding the fresh water tanks, I've been extremely pleased with both the Landmark and with RVs for Less. RVs jumped quickly on the few shakedown bugs we found.

I'm sure this pinched vent line will be fixed, but it concerns me to see so many reports for the same thing over several years and across various models. These factory warranty repairs ("escapes" in the aerospace field) have to cost Heartland pretty heavily, while the fix, superficially at least, seems simple if they can bend on the UDC: A fill port in the offdoor side near and well above the tanks to keep the fill and vent runs short would obviate all these various issues--pinched lines, partial fills, difficult fills, syphoning while under way. These are all related to trying to keep a gravity water system too horizontal. Their fill hose runs are so long and snaked that the gradient is only marginally steep enough to deliver efficiently, while the long run back for the vent hose seems to pose too many opportunities to get pinched during assembly. If the UDC is sacred (It's a hot dog idea and I really like it if it can be made to work properly), then they need rigid, smooth bore PVC that can hold a constant gradient and they could run the vent line back through it to preclude pinching as is done in a lot of gravity systems. But these are cost adders; you can't just snake rigid line through any old place. I am out of place trying to critique out of my field.
--fivernine

Respectfully, and intelligently described! I agree with all aspects of your analysis. Heartland should consider the comments from you and previous posts another opportunity to get a leg up to improve the design.